The lives and stories of Oregon State University

Associate Professor Michael Scott has been appointed by Scott Ashford, dean of the College of Engineering, as interim head of the School of Civil and Construction Engineering (CCE).

“Michael has a strong research track record, understands the current and future needs of CCE, and is a thoughtful and collaborative decision maker,” said Ashford. “I look forward to working with him to build on the existing academic and research programs in CCE and to ensure a successful outcome for the permanent school head search.”

Since joining Oregon State in 2004, Scott has mentored three Ph.D. and seven master’s students. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on structural theory, structural dynamics, statics, nonlinear structural analysis, and structural reliability. Scott is internationally recognized for his contributions to OpenSees, an open source software framework for finite element analysis.

In his new appointment, Scott will manage the school’s academic programs, which serve 850 undergraduate and 170 graduate students, and oversee a unit with 31 faculty and 22 staff. He will continue to conduct research on simulating fluid-structure interaction, the complex phenomena of wave loading on coastal infrastructure, and applications of these techniques to multiple natural hazards involving earthquakes and tsunamis.

“As interim head, I plan to help CCE fine-tune its organizational structure to support the priorities and strategies of the College of Engineering,” said Scott. “I am fully committed to doing whatever I can to guarantee the collective success of our organization as we transition to a permanent school head.”

Scott earned his bachelor’s degree from North Carolina State University and completed his master’s and doctoral degrees in structural engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

One Response to “Scott appointed interim head of the School of Civil and Construction Engineering”

I have had the good fortune to be tutored by Frank Abrams, PhD, Emeritus, former Head of Biomedical Engineering at NCSU and it takes a high degree of – intelligence, people skills, years of education, ability to teach, and most of all common sense.

This is a combination held by only a small handful of people in the world and I hope Dr. Scott would be willing to accept the position not if but when it is offered to him.